Interview: How direct to consumer business Paws plans to kick on after Fetch acquisition

”When I grew up my dogs were like brothers and sisters, they were a part of the family - even as a spotty teenager I used to love taking them out for walks with my Walkman,” says Coxell as he tucks into a sandwich in his Clerkenwell office.

The office is pet-free when Retail Week visits as many of Paws’ employees remain working frorm home, but it will eventually be home to dogs and cats, including Coxell’s own dog Iris.

Despite Coxell’s history in financial services - he still holds the record as the youngest chief executive ever in the FTSE 250 - his passion for animals shines through. He founded Paws Holdings, which included Pet-Supermarket.co.uk and PetMeds.co.uk in the UK and Medicanimal.com in Continental Europe, in 2019.

However it was the pet boom over lockdown which led to Coxell founding Paws earlier this year after snapping up Fetch - which Coxell purchased from Ocado for an undisclosed amount in January.

Using Ocado’s wealth of customer data, Paws has begun to build its knowledge, migrating 50,000 customers onto the new website and encouraging them to create their pets profile online. The acquisition gives Paws a combined pro forma turnover in excess of £55m.

“When I looked at how pets and their pet parents are being served, the market is still transactional and product-led,” explains Coxell. ”If people buy an puppy now, do they know which is right for them? I’m hearing horror stores in lockdown of people buying big dogs who live in an apartment.

”First of all, how do we identify the right pet for us, and then where do we go for impartial advice on how to look after them, within your budget constraints?”

This week Paws launched its new wesbite and migrated across French customers from Fetch to further make inroads into the burgeoning pet ownership market.

Over three million UK households acquired a pet during the pandemic, with the population of dogs and cats in Europe shooting up to 200 million in 2020, from 165 million in 2012. Coxell says this provide Paws with ample opportunity to grow the business and help a generation of new “pet parents”.

“There’s a huge disconnect between that need and how the market operates, with the transactional giants such as Amazon and Zooplus that are all things to all people. Its unlimited choice and completely confusing.

“My experience as a young person was that I’d go into a pet shop, they’d know who I was, what the names of my dogs were and what I was there to buy. But pet shops are small with limited choice, and much more expensive, so surely there’s an opportunity for scalable personalisation?”

Coxell says that Paws has leaned into creating a totally personalised service, acting as a online wellbeing service for all cat and dog needs - from nutrition plans, to the ability to reach a vet within 90 seconds.

A unique element of the business is that 40% of its customer service team are professionally trained to vetinary nurse level, with training paid for by Paws - Coxell aims to grow that to 100% in the next year.

Paws’ three key pillars

Coxell says the business is based on three key pillars - giving expert pet knowledge on wellbeing; giving back to the community, and environmental commitments.

On the second pillar, Paws is set to launch a “buy one, give one” programme where customers who purchase their own-brand dog food will also gift food to a homeless dog. 

In terms of sustainability commitments, Paws key strategy lies in packaging - encouraging repeat orders that can be made in one delivery, using recycled packaging.

The business will also produce its own label products in a carbon negative environment - with wind turbines attached to the factory.

“Paws vision is to be Europe’s number one dog and cat wellbeing business - number one doesn’t mean being the biggest, it just means being the best,” concludes Coxell. 

With the pet market set to grow 31% in the next five years, Paws unique proposition, focus on personalisation and a burgeoning market means that Coxell and his team are starting on the front paw.